My tips for the National Television Awards

Radio Times TV editor casts her votes for the NTAs, which celebrate the nation's favourite shows...

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Alison Graham's TV Watch
Alison Graham
Alison Graham
My tips for the National Television Awards
You have the power. Can you feel it? Isn't it wonderful? Because, dear viewer, you can make them and you can break them. When it comes to the National Television Awards, yours are the votes that count: you will decide who will choke with delight on their goat's cheese and roasted tomato canapés because they are winners; or sob into their crème brûlées because they just weren't good enough.

Television insiders vote for the Baftas and the Royal Television Society awards, which can lead to some odd decisions.

That's mainly because you'd be surprised just how many of this "elite" don't actually watch much telly, so we get the kind of rupture in the television universe that allows Fonejacker and Misfits to walk away with the prizes.

Admittedly the shortlist is mainstream - there are no More4 documentaries about Mongolian nose flautists who soothe their yak herds with renditions of the Stone Roses' I Wanna Be Adored, or searing BBC4 dramas where single mothers on blasted northern council estates take to knitting their own heroin to make ends meet.

But never mind. There's Benidorm and Harry Hill's TV Burp in the comedy category!

Benidorm in particular proves that big, blowsy sitcoms can work on main channels and win big audiences, while TV Burp, though perhaps showing signs of wear, is still surreal enough and clever enough to pull in huge Saturday-night audiences.

The drama categories (drama and drama performance) reflect the seismic effects of Steven "He does no wrong" Moffat's 2010 double whammy of Doctor Who and Sherlock.

The latter, a mere three episodes long, made a star of a great-coated Benedict Cumberbatch, (drama performance nominee) and, I hope, sent a whole new generation scurrying to read Conan Doyle's originals.

Meanwhile, Matt Smith (who's up against Cumberbatch) walked straight into Doctor Who and made the role his own, with a sweet, quirky and funny interpretation of a man who was once in danger of becoming a bleak, existential figure consumed by loss and despair.

David Jason is in there, too, as is Philip Glenister, who both said significant last hurrahs this year with the end of A Touch of Frost and Ashes to Ashes. Maybe one or other will get the sentimental vote. It's worth noting that there are no actresses in the drama performance category, which is a poor show.

The year's break-out successes Glee and The Inbetweeners (both E4) vie for best digital choice with, bless him, Peter Andre: The Next Chapter (ITV2) which was largely devoted to Andre going on holiday with his kids.

Glee arrived here having scored a notable US success and similarly took off, even though (whisper it) it was largely the same story every week. But the songs were fun and fearsome gym teacher Sue Sylvester became a quotable cult figure.

As for The Inbetweeners, it was more social phenomenon than TV series, beloved of both grown-ups and teens, who adored its stew of angst, farty boys and pheromones. It won E4's biggest ever audiences and, inevitably, a film version is in the works.

Elsewhere, the weepy I'm-doing-this-for-my-dead-mother/going-on-a-journey juggernauts are playing together nicely in the best talent show category after what's arguably been their best year in terms of audience numbers.

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